I definitely think that Sasuke still cares for Itachi. He certainly still craves his approval, as I see it; he may be giving himself different reasons for that, but he still does. All this happened when he was really young, and not only does that make a bigger impact, but I think it's kind of frozen Sasuke in that phase of development.

The only way I can see it resolving is for Sasuke to kill Itachi, but to maybe be doing it to protect Naruto or Sakura (since Itachi/Akatsuki is aiming to kill Naruto). That'll be less of an empty victory, and then when he goes back to Konoha, he'll have people and family to return to.

Nah. Sasuke already tried training by himself, really. The problem is that - gasp! - he's progressing like a normal twelve-year-old should! It sucks that he compares himself to Naruto, who has a demon to rely on. >_>